Chapter 65

The notebook could transform into a human, and it wanted to.
No, it would be more accurate to say it was originally human.
When Gu Yi’an first obtained the notebook as an item in the pure white space, its description identified it as Lu Zize’s diary.
Later, Lu Zize’s soul had attached itself to the notebook.
But that wasn’t quite right either.
To be precise, even Lu Zize was just one of the god’s personas.
If the god wanted to become human, then it could.
This guy was really pushing his luck.
Gu Yi’an glanced at the notebook, her expression unchanged.
She said calmly, "You want to become human now?"
Her tone was flat, no different from usual.
But the notebook keenly sensed something off in her attitude.
It immediately erased the text from the page and deftly resorted to its old trick.
"Whimper."
A massive line of text appeared before Gu Yi'an's eyes, making it impossible for her to ignore.
The notebook was being deliberately cute again.
But this time, Gu Yi'an wasn't going to let it off the hook.
Gu Yi'an asked, "Since you can turn into a human, shouldn't you be able to live on your own?"
She was planning to make the notebook live independently.
"No."
The notebook quickly replied and immediately denied its previous statement.
"I can't turn into a human."
It could do that?
Gu Yi'an stared at the notebook, feeling both angry and amused.
Angry because this creature could instantly take back what it had just said.
Amused because it had backtracked so swiftly.
Was she really that terrifying?
Gu Yi'an had no way to deal with the notebook.
She took a small sip of her milk tea and asked, "Do you still want some milk tea?"
The notebook replied, "No."
Fine.
You don't want any.
Gu Yi'an stood up, walked to the counter, and told the staff she wanted to take away six cups of milk tea.
After paying, she returned to her original seat.
A line of text appeared on the open notebook on the table.
It seemed to be hesitantly asking Gu Yi'an.
"One of them is for me, right?"
The notebook knew Gu Yi'an had ordered six cups of milk tea.
Gu Yi'an wasn't surprised by this.
She hadn't deliberately lowered her voice when ordering.
If the notebook wanted to listen, it could always hear.
Gu Yi'an looked at the text on the notebook.
She said heartlessly, "No. They're for me. The five players and me. Can't I have another cup?"
"Wah."
The notebook was being cute again.
"Don't 'wah.'"
Gu Yi'an was exasperated. She calmed herself down and asked, "If you can't turn into a human, what would you even do with milk tea?"
"An'an is being mean to me, boo hoo."
The notebook was upset about Gu Yi'an's earlier "Don't 'wah.'"
Seeing the text that appeared on the notebook, Gu Yi'an felt the urge to tear it to pieces.
This creature, when its cuteness tactics failed, immediately switched to a new strategy of playing pitiful.
Was it testing her tolerance?
Gu Yi'an composed herself and said, "Lu Zize, speak normally."
She simply couldn't imagine Lu Zize saying something like that.
The notebook seemed aggrieved, but still replied, "Okay."
It returned to normal, the words on the page vanished, and no new text appeared.
The notebook fell silent.
The sounds from the counter of the milk tea shop reached Gu Yi'an's ears.
Just moments ago, she had felt her surroundings were lively, but now they seemed excessively quiet.
Gu Yi'an picked up her phone and checked the status of her social media account.
Her account had been suspended.
Additionally, some of the posts she had previously published had been deleted.
This outcome was within Gu Yi'an's expectations.
Calmly, she switched to a new account, posted content nearly identical to her previous one, and left comments on old threads, mentioning that her account had been suspended and asking if anyone knew how to contact a hacker, as she wanted to hack her old account back.
"Your order is ready."
The milk tea shop employee called out.
Gu Yi'an stood up, picked up the packed milk tea, and returned to her seat.
While operating her phone, she spoke to the notebook as if nothing had happened, "Didn't you want milk tea? Help yourself."
Although Gu Yi'an had denied it earlier, the cup she claimed was for herself was actually bought for the notebook.
If the notebook could transform into a human, it should be able to take it itself.
After saying this, Gu Yi'an continued communicating with people online.
But she also kept part of her attention on her surroundings.
She didn't sense anyone appearing nearby.
Gu Yi'an glanced at the notebook on the table.
It remained open, but the text on it had changed.
"I can't turn into a human right now."
Gu Yi'an: "..."
Can you turn into a human or not?
Was it because of what she said earlier that the notebook no longer wanted to become human?
Gu Yi'an hesitated for a moment before speaking, "The fact that you can turn into a human... is actually a good thing."
If she only considered the notebook's ability to become human, it was indeed a positive development.
After all, Lu Zize had human thoughts. Being confined to a notebook must feel restrictive for him.
If he had a human body, he would no longer be constrained. And then he could stir up trouble again.
Gu Yi'an didn't dwell on it further and said to the notebook, "You could see and interact with the world firsthand. Turning into a human is a good thing."
If it could become human, Gu Yi'an would be happy for it.
The notebook heard Gu Yi'an's words.
After thinking for a while, the text on the page changed.
"Then, can I still rely on you to take care of me?"
"..."
Gu Yi'an was at a loss for words.
Had she ever taken care of the notebook before?
No!
Moreover, this question was tricky to answer.
If she said yes, then someone could justifiably appear in front of her every day.
If she said no, wouldn't that imply she had taken care of the notebook before?
She absolutely couldn't acknowledge such a baseless claim.
Gu Yi'an remained silent. She took out the prop from her pocket, Lu Zize's bank card, and placed it next to the notebook.
"Your card."
Returning it to its owner.
This time, it was the notebook's turn to fall silent.
In this moment of mutual silence, a phone call broke the stalemate.
It was from the players at the temple.
They had come out and were inviting Gu Yi'an to join them for a meal.
After hanging up, Gu Yi'an glanced at the notebook.
Sure enough, new text appeared on the page.
Gu Yi'an's gaze fell upon the line of words.
Her eyes paused.
The characters on the paper were meticulously written, stroke by stroke, as if representing someone's earnest attitude.
"Then I can take care of you."
On the street, a car blared its noisy horn.
A bubble tea shop employee was loudly talking on the phone with their family, making the shop clamorous.
The bubble tea packaging rustled as Gu Yi'an accidentally brushed against it.
Gu Yi'an paid no attention to those sounds.
She only realized one thing: someone always knew how to say the right words.
Gu Yi'an reached out and closed the notebook.
She changed the subject, "It's time to meet up with the others."
Upon hearing this, the notebook consciously shrank in size and flew into the pocket of Gu Yi'an's jacket.
Carrying her bubble tea, Gu Yi'an left the shop and successfully met up with the other players.
The five players who had come out of the temple looked relaxed.
The bubble tea Gu Yi'an had brought was warmly welcomed by them, they hadn't had a single drop of water during the two-plus hours they spent in the temple.
The group first found a nearby restaurant to have a meal.
After the meal, Dai Qi said, "Since the hotel ghost can't find us for now, let's all start acting according to our respective tasks. We'll regroup in the evening."
He intended for everyone to start immediately.
But having just finished their meal, no one was particularly enthusiastic about cooperating.
The novice male player, however, excitedly shouted, "Let's get started!"
Uncle Wu said, "Aren't you sleepy after lunch? Let's sit for a while before leaving."
He squinted, exuding a leisurely, elderly vibe.
Gu Yi'an glanced at everyone and said, "Let me share what I discovered this morning."
Gu Yi'an briefly recounted what she had done while they were in the temple.
"...I checked, and only these few forum websites haven't deleted the posts I made. I looked into their owners, they're likely these individuals. Their higher-ups are the ones we can contact this time. I'll send the list of these people to all of you in the group chat."
"As for news media, a few belong to the central authorities. They dare to report and expose things. Uncle Wu, you can reach out to them."
After Gu Yi'an finished speaking, the novice male player was astonished. He said, "Boss Gu, after hearing all that, we don’t even need to think anymore."
Uncle Wu and the two female players nodded in agreement.
Dai Qi said, "Since everyone is clear on what to do next, let’s proceed with this plan. We should start taking action now; we can’t delay any longer."
He once again urged them to act. Having rested for a while, everyone was ready to move.
At the entrance of the restaurant, the group split into three teams.
With only two directions on the road, two teams inevitably had to go the same way.
Uncle Wu glanced at Dai Qi and said, "Our team and Little Gu’s will walk together for a stretch before separating."
Dai Qi said to the female player Xiao Ling, "We’ll go this way."
The two of them left first.
Uncle Wu, Gu Yi’an, and the other four headed in the opposite direction.
It was a little past one in the afternoon, and the sun was at its fiercest.
Uncle Wu and the others walked in the shade under the roadside trees.
After walking a few hundred meters, Uncle Wu suddenly asked, "Little Gu, do you think he’s a player in this round?"
The novice male player was startled by Uncle Wu’s abrupt question.
When he processed the meaning of Uncle Wu’s words, he froze.
"Uncle Wu, are you saying Brother Dai isn’t a player on our side?"
The novice male player wasn’t foolish enough to mistake the "he" in Uncle Wu’s words as referring to the female player Xiao Ling.
The female player Xiao Yu also understood Uncle Wu’s question. She looked somewhat worried but remained silent.
Uncle Wu looked at Gu Yi’an.
Gu Yi’an showed no surprise at Uncle Wu’s question.
She had her suspicions as well.
Most of the information they had now came from Dai Qi, and their current actions were all arranged by him.
If Dai Qi had tampered with anything, it would be difficult for them to detect.
Uncle Wu said, "Among the previous players, there must have been smart ones too. If they couldn’t take down that hotel, maybe it was because of internal issues, they died at the hands of their own people."
The novice male player and the female player Xiao Yu exchanged glances.
They had doubts: Dai Qi had been with them from the start, so why would Uncle Wu suspect he wasn’t a player in this round?
Though they had their suspicions, they didn’t dare to ask at that moment.
Gu Yi’an agreed with Uncle Wu’s speculation.
After all, there were surely clever players among them.
What they could think of, previous players could have thought of as well.
This realization made Gu Yi’an sigh inwardly. They not only had to guard against ghosts and outsiders but also worry about internal problems.
Gu Yi’an said, "I believe he’s on our side for now."
She was taking a gamble.
Betting that Dai Qi wanted to clear the game.
Uncle Wu asked, "Do you believe that kid really contacted veteran players?"
Earlier that morning, Dai Qi had claimed to have contacted players from previous rounds of The Game of the Gods, that he was the one who proposed cooperation and also the one who called it off. Even the information about the temple’s senior monk just now came from his contact.
Almost everything was based solely on Dai Qi’s word.
Gu Yi’an said, "The senior monk we met this morning didn’t seem to know him. Our current target is the hotel. Let’s give him a little trust."
Uncle Wu remarked, "He’s too impatient. And he’s not a good leader either. What kind of leader acts like that?"
Uncle Wu scoffed at Dai Qi’s leadership abilities.
Gu Yi’an knew it was time to placate Uncle Wu a little.
She said, "Right now, we’re all working toward the same goal, and we don’t have any evidence to prove he isn’t a player in this round. Uncle Wu, let’s just focus on our own tasks and keep an eye on him in our daily interactions."
Uncle Wu replied, "Little Gu, I know you want everyone to work together. But there are too many suspicious things about him. Back at the hotel lobby, if he had arrived early and waited, he could have appeared with us. After that, he rushed to speak up, and the hotel staff wouldn’t have said anything more. He took the phone. He contacted the veteran players. Even now, the plan is mostly following his lead."
Gu Yi’an understood that Uncle Wu was worried Dai Qi might have ulterior motives that could cause the team to fail this round.
She could empathize with Uncle Wu.
Uncle Wu had encountered a traitor before, which made him especially wary of Dai Qi, given the doubts surrounding him.
Gu Yi’an still believed that Dai Qi’s heart was set on clearing the game, his goal was also to take down the hidden forces behind the hotel.
As long as everyone’s ultimate objective aligned, they were still comrades.
Gu Yi’an said, "Uncle Wu, what we can do now is trust him. We have to believe in our teammates."
The four of them crossed the street.
Uncle Wu stood on the sidewalk and said, "Little Gu, I won’t be meeting up tonight. You should think it over too. I’ll take her this way."
Gu Yi’an nodded.
She and the novice male player watched as Uncle Wu left with the female player, Xiao Yu.
The novice male player gazed at their retreating figures and asked, "Senior, can we trust Brother Dai?"
Gu Yi’an replied, "That’s for you to decide."
The novice male player said, "I think we can trust Brother Dai."
"Then trust him."
Gu Yi’an said, "Now, let’s go into the mall and buy some new clothes. Remember to get charging equipment for your phone. When we get to the internet cafe, I’ll send you the specific tasks via text. Just follow my instructions then."
Hearing this, the novice male player caught on.
"Senior, does this mean we’re splitting up too?"
Gu Yi’an said, "Posting from an internet cafe makes it easy for others to track your location. To avoid them pinpointing our exact whereabouts, we’ll need to separate as well."
Gu Yi’an didn’t mention that she had already contacted a hacker.
The hacker might or might not be affiliated with the hotel.
Just in case, Gu Yi'an decided to act alone to prevent the hacker from identifying her companions.
The new male player had a newly purchased Buddhist scripture with him and wasn’t particularly worried about acting alone. Hearing Gu Yi’an’s reasoning, he nodded and said, “Alright. I’ll switch locations frequently from now on.”
He was prepared to change internet cafes every two hours.
The two of them entered the shopping mall together and soon disappeared into the bustling crowd.
Shopping malls in every world were largely the same.
Most people in the mall came in groups.
Solo shoppers like Gu Yi’an weren’t unheard of, but they were rare.
Gu Yi’an estimated that it would take at least a week for the topic of hidden cameras in the hotel to gain widespread attention in society.
Therefore, she needed to buy at least two sets of clothes to change into.
With a clear goal in mind, Gu Yi’an purchased everything from undergarments to everyday wear.
During this time, she used her phone to chat with the hacker about her experience at the haunted hotel and sent over the videos she had recorded.
At first, she didn’t mention the hotel’s name.
But after watching the videos, the hacker proactively suggested a hotel name and asked if it was the one.
Gu Yi’an checked the name.
She replied, “Yes.”
Upon seeing her response, the hacker abruptly sent several photos of corpses without any warning.
If Gu Yi’an hadn’t already experienced bloody scenes before, she might have been frightened right away.
Gu Yi’an calmly examined the photos of the corpses and noticed that the locations seemed to be rooms in that very hotel.
The room’s décor and furniture arrangement in the photos were identical to those in the hotel.
Gu Yi’an realized she had hooked a big fish.
Originally, she had only intended to contact a hacker to help with publicity, ensuring that the exposure of hidden cameras in the hotel wouldn’t be artificially suppressed. She never expected to coincidentally encounter someone who actually possessed substantial evidence.
After reviewing the photos, Gu Yi’an asked the hacker how he had obtained them.
The hacker replied that his friend had sent them before dying. He wanted to avenge his friend and asked if Gu Yi’an would join them, as he had already found several others with similar experiences, their family members or friends had lost contact after staying at that hotel.
The invitation came too coincidentally, smoothly to the point of being unbelievable.
Gu Yi’an stared at the message from the hacker on her phone and didn’t reply immediately.
She wondered whether the other person was genuinely from this world or an experienced player of The Game of the Gods posing as a hacker.
Either way, it seemed their goals aligned.
She decided to take the gamble.
Without asking further questions, Gu Yi’an agreed.
Not long after her reply, the hacker gave her a website address and directed her to a private chat room.
Gu Yi’an found a bench in the mall meant for shoppers to rest, placed her newly bought clothes on one side, and focused on the content in the chat room.
The people in the chat room were very wary of the newcomer.
They didn’t post anything related to the hotel and only questioned the hacker who had brought Gu Yi’an in, asking why he had added a new member.
The hacker expressed that he believed Gu Yi'an had a talent for guiding public opinion. If anyone wanted to seek revenge for friends or family, they could follow her lead.
Gu Yi'an didn’t say much, just watched as the hacker, with a few words, convinced the people in the chat room to cooperate with her actions.
Wasn’t the real talent this hacker?
Gu Yi'an fell silent.
The traces were too obvious, the coincidences too many, making her open her coat pocket to check the miniature notebook inside.
"Lu Zize, is that you?"
She felt that even if the hacker wasn’t Lu Zize, it was still an alternate identity of the god in this world.
After Gu Yi'an asked that question, the miniature notebook floated out, hovering in front of her, then expanded back to its original size.
Passersby chatted and laughed with their companions, unconsciously avoiding the bench where Gu Yi'an sat. No one noticed the notebook floating in the air, and they even overlooked Gu Yi'an herself.
Gu Yi'an noticed this. She realized she didn’t need to worry about others overhearing her conversation with the notebook. She no longer had to be cautious of the outside world.
The notebook opened on its own, and a sentence appeared on its pages.
"I want to help you."
It admitted?
It actually admitted this time?
Gu Yi'an hadn’t expected the notebook to confess so straightforwardly this time.
This was completely different from its usual behavior.
It admitted that the hacker was indeed it.
Gu Yi'an paused for a moment, then asked, "You are the god, right?"
Since the notebook had already admitted to being the hacker, it probably didn’t want to keep hiding behind alternate identities.
It should also admit to being the god, right?
Gu Yi'an saw new words appear on the notebook.
It was a question.
"Do you like the god?"
It then added, "I want to hear the truth."
Gu Yi'an glanced at the beads on her bracelet, thought for a moment, and asked, "Will you answer me truthfully?"
"Yes," the notebook replied without hesitation.
Gu Yi'an decided to trust that statement for now and answered cautiously, "I don’t like him, but I don’t dislike him either."
Not particularly fond, but not repulsed either.
Upon hearing Gu Yi'an’s response, the notebook immediately displayed another sentence.
"Then I am not the god."
Gu Yi'an: "..."
What was the difference between this and the ostrich burying its head in the sand?
She truly had no way of dealing with the notebook at all.
Perhaps afraid that Gu Yi'an would press further, the notebook spontaneously displayed a line of text: "I can turn into a human now."
The notebook shifted topics so abruptly that Gu Yi'an almost couldn't keep up.
Gu Yi'an asked, "You can turn into a human now?"
Couldn't it transform into a human whenever it wanted?
"Look ahead," new words appeared on the notebook.
Ahead?
Gu Yi'an looked up and saw a men's clothing store.
On both sides of the glass wall, there were mannequins.
Perhaps because the mannequins in this store had hair, the suits they wore made them appear exceptionally handsome and captivating.
Suddenly, Gu Yi'an noticed that the facial features of one of the mannequins instantly became more defined and striking, even more handsome than before. Its eyes grew deeper, and then its skin tone visibly shifted closer to that of a real person.
The passersby completely ignored it.
In just a few seconds, the mannequin transformed from head to toe into something almost indistinguishable from a real person.
He adjusted his tie, smiled at her, and then, without anyone noticing, passed through the glass and stood before her.
"We can go on a date now."